The Holocaust Industry: Reflections on the Exploitation of Jewish Suffering

In academic circles, the Holocaust - the murder of five million European Jews during the Second World War - is a field still remarkably open to new interpretations and vigorous debate. However, "The Holocaust," its misbegotten pop-culture twin, has taken on the worst characteristics of a cult. Braving the slings and arrows of "The Holocaust's" various high priests, Norman Finkelstein has written a book which exposes them for the frauds that they are.The Holocaust Industry is a searing indictment of recent Holocaust compensation agreements. Its central premise is that that the campaign to expand both the range of targets and the amount of compensation sought is not, as organizations like the World Jewish Congress would have us believe, motivated by a desire to see justice served. On the contrary, it is just the latest and most extreme example of the abuse of the Holocaust for crass purposes. Previously trotted out to intimidate critics of Israel, "The Holocaust," Finkelstein convincingly argues, has recently been wielded as a club with which to bully Swiss banks, German companies, and the emerging democracies of the former Soviet bloc into handing over billions of dollars. The compensation campaign has become, to quote the author's memorable phrase, "an outright extortion racket." Worse still, while the various compensation claims were launched in the name of needy Holocaust survivors, much of the money awarded thus far has been earmarked for the coffers of Jewish organizations, and thus is likely to be frittered away on such dubious projects as community property restitution and Holocaust awareness.Survivors, to be sure, are not the only victims of what Finkelstein labels the Holocaust Industry. Another casualty is historical truth. Indeed, of all the issues raised in the book, this is the most disturbing. Drawing on a wide range of sources, Finkelstein has uncovered a litany of lies and deceptions. The number of actual survivors were wildly inflated, bogus survivors published fraudulent memoirs to international acclaim, and, during the tussle over Jewish assets allegedly held in Swiss banks, the head of the Simon Wiesenthal Centre levelled the outrageous charge, one contradicted by the historical record, that Switzerland had interned Jewish refugees in slave labour camps during the war. If that were not bad enough, Nazism's numerous non-Jewish victims have been systematically airbrushed out of Holocaust commemorations. As Finkelstein so eloquently observes, a few more years of this and it will no longer be possible to distinguish between Holocaust commemoration and Holocaust denial.Like all mavericks, Finkelstein occasionally overstates his case. His attacks on the self-appointed custodians of "The Holocaust," while justified, seem meanspirited at times. His characterization of present-day American-Jewish elites as morally equivalent to those of their European ancestors who collaborated with the Nazis is both excesive and uncalled for. Finally,

I am an American Jew, and no, I don't "hate myself" or hate my ethnic heritage. I am proud of my Jewish heritage. I feel all Jews should read this book and give serious thought to it. Contary to what his critics say, Finkelstein does not deny and never has denied that European Jews suffered one of the most terrible atrocities in human history under the Nazi holocaust. (He does, however, argue persuasively that Jews are not the only people in history to have suffered genocide. This is NOT the same as holocaust denial.) What Finkelstein argues, and the critics of this book refuse to consider, is that many Jews unfortunately feel that this tremendous suffering confers upon them some kind of moral blank-check for whatever political or financial purposes they see fit--kicking Palestinians out of their homes, for example. It is a controversial statement in the current political climate, but Finkelstein presents a tight, devastating argument in favor of it, and all morally serious people should at least evaluate the argument in terms of facts and logic, rather than dismissing it off-hand with ad hominem attacks against the author. (I am not suggesting, by the way, that ad hominem attacks are never admissable in the course of argument--Finkelstein loves to pepper his argument with stinging, and often quite comic, insults to his opponents. However, Finkelstein realizes that these attacks must be an addition to, not a substitute for, reasoned argument. His opponents, in turn, don't seem to care much for reasoned argument at all, and prefer instead to employ ad hominem attacks exclusively.)It is sad, though I suppose inevitable, that some anti-Semitic elements have latched on to this book as providing "support" for their prejudice. What is even more sad, however, is that many Jews somehow seem to think that this fact alone is enough to condemn the book. If some racist bigot latched on to a tightly-argued, well-reasoned book criticizing, say, Al Sharpton or Louis Farrakhan, and used this book to justify their prejudice towards African-Americans, would that fact in and of itself negate the conclusions of the book? Criticism is not the same thing as prejudice or hatred, even if that criticism is exploited by the purveyors of prejudice and hatred. Unfortunately, those who dismiss this book just can't seem to grasp this elementary distinction.

Prof. Finkelstein's book has been described by other reviwers as "angry"; and it is that! Yet, even if only half of the meticulously documented accusations in the book are true, the author has every right to his anger. So, in fact, does the entire population of the United States, Jewish and non-Jewish alike, and even more, citizens of Isreal, the Arab world and of Europe: not least those of Germany and Switzerland for whom the book convincingly documents shocking revelations of extortion and malfeasance, often at the expense of Holocaust survivors.Anger, then, pervades the 150 pages of this well written book; but never hatred. That reaction seems reserved for his critics who, in this reviewer's opinion, have advanced few arguments against the veracity of Finkelstein's theses and, instead, have felt obliged to resort to personal insult and character assassination; strengthening rather than weakening his case. Professor Finkelstein is a brave man!Like all iconoclastic and thought-provoking books, this one is essential reading for any student of the Holocaust because it is scholarly and rationally argued. The arguments therein challenge the leadership of the alleged "Holocaust Industry" to refute them in an unbiased court of public opinion which likely doesn't exist today. Finkelstein's is as yet a minority voice and may still readily be shouted down without recourse to rational argument; the day, however, will surely come when a less self-serving history of these awful events will be generally accepted.

Mr Finkelstein's basic point is that there are certain groups in the state of Israel and the World Jewish Community who use the Holocaust as a means of protecting themselves from any kind of criticism whatsoever: As soon as anyone would question what they are doing, they would point the finger to the Holocaust as a justification for it. At first, I was not really sure what to make of this idea. Should I condemn it, as it could be a try to end Holocaust commemorance? Or should I read on and see what it was about? I decided to do the latter, and I have not regretted it.Norman Finkelstein does not object to remembering the Holocaust. His parents were sent to a concentration camp by the Nazis - why should he want to forget what they had gone through? What Mr Finkelstein does object to, is the exploitation of their suffering, and all the other victim's suffering, by a Holocaust Industry that has hardly a connection to them. It would be a mistake to try to summarize his arguments in this short review, as this would only lead to generalizations and misunderstandings. This book is neither an attack on Holocaust commemorance nor on the Jews and their religion. It is an attempt to take a reasonable approach to a topic that has been, up to now, often discussed in a much too emotional way.